New Delhi: A day after Manmohan Singh hinted that he was not averse to a third term as Prime Minister, Congress tried to downplay his statement by saying that people want Rahul Gandhi to hold the top post.

Congress spokesperson Rashid Alvi said, "Workers of the Congress party have the desire from their heart that Rahulji should be the Prime Minister.” He added that after the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the newly-elected party MPs and the Congress leadership will take the decision who will be the Prime Minister.

Union Minister and Congress leader Rajiv Shukla remarked that the Prime Minister had said nothing to suggest he was ready for a third term. "In my view he was responding to a pointed question. And what he said? He only said that when bridge will come we will decide how to cross it," he said.

Shukla also appeared to suggest that the media was giving different interpretations to Singh's remark. Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari said that the Prime Minister was responding to a "hypothetical" question and it was not essential to "unnecessarily interpret" his statement.

"There is nothing to add or subtract to what the Prime Minister has said. He was responding to a hypothetical question and it not essential to unnecessarily interpret the PM's statement," Tewari said.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's cryptic remark leaving open the possibility of him being in the race for a third term prompted BJP to call him a "reluctant" politician who has shown his true "political colours".